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McCain Tells a New Version of Heroic P.O.W. Story [No FR mention]
ABC News ^ | July 10, 2008 | Jake Tapper

Posted on 07/13/2008 12:17:15 AM PDT by Plutarch

In Pennsylvania, McCain Tells a New Version of Heroic P.O.W. Story -- Subbing the Pittsburgh Steelers for the Green Bay Packers

July 10, 2008 5:37 PM

Yesterday in Pittsburgh, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., professed his love for the Steelers to KDKA-TV.

Watch HERE.

Asked what first comes to his mind when he thinks of Pittsburgh, McCain chuckled, "the Steelers.  I was a mediocre high school athlete but I loved and adored the sports but the Steelers really made a huge impression on me particularly in my early years."

And then McCain told a rather moving story about his time as a P.O.W. "When I was first interrogated and really had to give some information because of the pressures, physical pressures on me, I named the starting lineup, defensive line of the Pittsburgh Steelers as my squadron mates..."

[excerpt]


TOPICS: Politics/Elections; US: Pennsylvania
KEYWORDS: greenbaypackers; jaketapper; mccain; pittsburgh; rino; steelers
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On July 9th McCain use of the Pittsburgh Steelers for this anecdote was discussed and analyzed exclusively at Free Republic on the thread McCain Named Steelers Defensive Line In POW Camp . On this thread, the unlikelihood of McCain knowing anything about the pitiful 1968 Steelers, and his previous use of Green Bay was demonstrated. On July 10th Jake Topper reports this story, without reporting where he learned of it, and not acknowledging FR. This story was later picked up by Fox, the Los Angeles Times, and other MSM sources
1 posted on 07/13/2008 12:17:15 AM PDT by Plutarch
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To: Plutarch

Will this non-story lower my taxes or possibly lower the price of fuel and oil that everyone who drives a vehicle has to pay?


2 posted on 07/13/2008 12:20:21 AM PDT by BigSkyFreeper (There is no alternative to the GOP except varying degrees of insanity)
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To: Plutarch
He professed his love for La Raza and Charlie Keating too.
3 posted on 07/13/2008 12:22:38 AM PDT by Ratblaster ("White folks greed runs a world in need" B Hussein Obama The Muslim Magic Negro)
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To: BigSkyFreeper

It is never a non-story if it involves the Black and Gold.


4 posted on 07/13/2008 12:27:10 AM PDT by FredZarguna ("To the Socialists of all Parties." Even those posting on FR.)
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To: BigSkyFreeper; Berlin_Freeper

The point isn’t the importance of the story, it is that a MSM source is using material from FR without attribution.

Ping to Berlin_Freeper, who first posted the thread.


5 posted on 07/13/2008 12:37:26 AM PDT by Plutarch
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To: Plutarch

Anybody ever heard a preacher tell an anecdote from one congregation to another? And the story changes just a little? Politicians do it, too. I’ve even heard preachers pick up stories from other preachers and then they repeat the story as if they were telling their own first hand account. The point is often not the facts of the story but something else entirely. Ronald Reagan did it more than once.


6 posted on 07/13/2008 12:54:10 AM PDT by petitfour
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To: FredZarguna

Well, this is a non-story.


7 posted on 07/13/2008 1:07:17 AM PDT by BigSkyFreeper (There is no alternative to the GOP except varying degrees of insanity)
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To: Plutarch

So in other words, a FReeper wants credit for putting Obama in the White House?


8 posted on 07/13/2008 1:08:35 AM PDT by BigSkyFreeper (There is no alternative to the GOP except varying degrees of insanity)
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To: petitfour; BigSkyFreeper
The point is often not the facts of the story but something else entirely.

This rationalization does not apply here. And despite BigSky telling everyone it is a non-story, it is in fact a news story. It is a story because the whole point of mentioning his inspiration of the Pittsburgh Steelers was to endear himself to Western Pennsylvania. He has now managed to blow that up in his own face, and it didn't need to happen. It is one more stumble by a bumbling, unfocused campaign. That is a story, like it or not. McCain's minions, flunkies, and stooges will be out on the day after the election blaming everybody but themselves for losing an election they should be able to win with one hand tied behind their backs. If a FReeper hadn't pointed it out, someone else would have.

9 posted on 07/13/2008 1:46:26 AM PDT by FredZarguna ("To the Socialists of all Parties." Even those posting on FR.)
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To: FredZarguna; Plutarch

It’s only a news story for you and those who don’t have bigger things in their lives to worry about, like rising gas prices and the fact that the. Endearing oneself to Steelers fans is NOT what I would call headline news.


10 posted on 07/13/2008 2:14:36 AM PDT by BigSkyFreeper (There is no alternative to the GOP except varying degrees of insanity)
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To: BigSkyFreeper

I remember watching the first Super Bowl. I don’t remember who was on the team but I know that the Diamondbacks won.


11 posted on 07/13/2008 2:24:31 AM PDT by MARTIAL MONK (I'm waiting for the POP!)
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To: Plutarch

He would make a great Secretary of Veteran Affairs in Washington, D.C.


12 posted on 07/13/2008 2:26:42 AM PDT by AmericanInTokyo (Accepting the REALITY & trying to reverse America's slow global economic decline, is true patriotism)
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To: Plutarch

Does he like fried chicken?

I do.


13 posted on 07/13/2008 4:04:30 AM PDT by Tainan (Talk is cheap. Silence is golden. All I got is brass...lotsa brass.)
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To: Plutarch

Just my little contribution:

In the book “Honor Bound,” which covers all American POWs in Vietnam, in which McCain plays a rather small role and which was published in 1998; the authors claim it was the Green Bay Packers (pg 363).

In the other thread (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2043062/posts) poster Plutarch points out that in his own book “Faith of My Fathers” (1999) McCain states:

“Eventually, I gave them my ship’s name and squadron number, and confirmed that my target had been the power plant. Pressed for more useful information, I gave the names of the Green Bay Packers’ offensive line, and said they were members of my squadron. When asked to identify future targets, I simply recited the names of a number of North Vietnamese cities that had already been bombed.” [Page 194*]

So it would appear that Green Bay was the original story.


14 posted on 07/13/2008 4:19:26 AM PDT by JoeDetweiler
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To: Plutarch

dementia


15 posted on 07/13/2008 5:53:48 AM PDT by TornadoAlley3 ('GOP' : Get Our Petroleum)
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To: TornadoAlley3

“dementia”

There really are a lot of things in his behavior that suggest to me that he is having problems in this area.


16 posted on 07/13/2008 8:00:14 AM PDT by EEDUDE
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To: Plutarch

Ah, but they take us dwellers of the “fever swamps” and subhuman. Why anything they take from us, it is like taking a banana from a monkey’s hand. The “human” can claim ownership. We are just swamp dwelling primates.


17 posted on 07/13/2008 8:12:10 AM PDT by bvw
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To: Plutarch

Why would he need a new version? I do not understand.


18 posted on 07/13/2008 8:27:15 AM PDT by Grunthor (Mccain praised pro-illegal protests saying that they could force the laws to be liberalized)
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To: BigSkyFreeper

“So in other words, a FReeper wants credit for putting Obama in the White House?”

Wouldn’t that actually be the fault of those in the primaries that voted for Juan?


19 posted on 07/13/2008 8:28:48 AM PDT by Grunthor (Mccain praised pro-illegal protests saying that they could force the laws to be liberalized)
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To: Plutarch

If McCain is re-writing his history for political effect, it’s a
sad thing, IMHO.

Because the real truth of what McCain and his colleagues (e.g.,
Col. Bud Day) endured at The Hanoi Hilton is a narrative that the
best screenwriter in Hollywood couldn’t conceive.

Stick to the simple truth, Senator McCain.
It will serve you better than any “story”.


20 posted on 07/13/2008 8:36:12 AM PDT by VOA
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